Date of Award:

8-2026

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Science (MS)

Department:

Sociology and Anthropology

Committee Chair(s)

Gabriele Ciciurkaite

Committee

Gabriele Ciciurkaite

Committee

Guadalupe Marquez-Velarde

Committee

Stephen Van Geem

Abstract

Support for capital punishment, though consistently favored by the majority of the US population, has remained highly controversial due to biases in its application. This issue is particularly pressing for Black Americans and people with mental illnesses, as both populations are over-represented on death row. While support for capital punishment is primarily driven by socio-demographic characteristics such as political affiliation and race, existing literature indicates that White Americans who exhibit heightened racial stigma towards Black Americans are more likely to support capital punishment. The mechanisms that link racial stigma to support for capital punishment may exist for mental illness stigma and support for capital punishment, as Black Americans and people with mental illnesses are sometimes stigmatized in similar manners.

Using data from the 2024 General Social Survey (GSS), and the language of in/out-group theory and the stigmatization process, this study investigates if 1) There is a positive association between greater mental illness stigma and support for capital punishment and 2) If perceptions of dangerousness and the public’s desire to maintain social control of people with mental illnesses will partially explain the association. Findings indicate that greater stigma against having a group home in one’s neighborhood increases the odds of supporting capital punishment, potentially explained by a Not in My Backyard (NIMBY) framework. However, a Type 1 error may also be present. This study furthers sociological understandings of how criminalized and violent stigmatizations of marginalized communities contributes to inequalities in the criminal justice system.

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